Silks and Sacrifice
by Kit-Quicksand
Summary: Yuffie takes on a mission that pushes not only her limits, but Reno's as well. YuffieReno
1. Chapter 1

"Fuck, who the fuck bought this fucking clock! I swear, I will tear the fuck out of this fucking thing and shove each indi-fucking-vidual piece up Rude's fucking asshole. Punctual my ass; I fucking need some god damn sleep."

Yuffie woke up to that, education of all the different usages of the f-bomb, a high pitched beeping sound on the same frequency as whales, and the sound of something being thrown into the wall on the other side of her apartment, "You have got to be kidding me…" She grabbed her pillow and shoved it in front of her face but not before screaming, "Reno, if you don't shut the hell up I will_ give_ your freckled ass something to yell about!"

The neighbors must love them.

But the homicidal rant didn't even begin to seize, and she gave up on ever sleeping again. She spilled out onto the floor like her spine had liquefied- or rather on the dirty, muddy, bloody uniform from the last mission that was camouflaging her floor and mumbled a few dirty words of her own before stiffly getting up. She walked over to his room in her mismatched striped underwear- her underwear was always bleeding of obnoxiously neon colors- with her oversized work jacket hardly helping to cover anything (she stopped being modest a long time ago) and was greeted by _another _hole in the wall, and a half naked Reno (he was never modest to begin with… ever) assaulting a cheap alarm clock rather… viciously with one of his mud caked boots- correction, one of _her_ mud caked boots; oh hell no.

"Reno…" she said sickeningly sweet, he knew he was in deep shit then- when she was bitching and screaming then he was still in the green, but when she articulated every word like that she was preparing to kill. "What, may I ask, are you doing?"

"Makin' sure _that_ thing stays dead," and hit it dramatically one last time for effect "Fucking thing woke me up _on my day off_, stupid piece of shit." She stared daggers at him, which was an understatement; they were more like giant, horror movie prop, bloodstained chainsaws.

"and _you_ Turkey, woke me up on _mine._" He was about to interrupt her and inform her that she was a Turk now too, so she really can't call him that anymore- but the small usually brain dead part of his mind; i.e. common sense, kicked in and reminded him that that would probably not be the best choice of action… chainsaw survival rate was unnervingly low.

However the ever so resourceful Reno had picked up on few things in the past year he had lived with Yuffie, tricks of the trade; and one of which being his hot chocolate almost _always _puts her in a better mood- this knowledge had saved his life numerous times, and it was fixing to do it again.

" Er… yeah, sorry about that babe. I'll make you some hot chocolate if you'd stop getting all pissy, or are you here to punish me for being a bad boy." He said laying on his best woman slaying smile and taking notice of her attire, but the look on her face, and the fact that she had managed to pull a fucking throwing star from practically _nowhere _gave him a pretty good idea which of the two choices she would react better too- absolutely no fun, "Okay, okay damn if looks could kill-"

She frumpily slumped down on the couch, entertained herself with the comics from a paper two weeks old that she didn't even get, and absentmindedly chewed on her already-way-to-short finger nails, "Reeve is gonna shit a brick when he hears you destroyed our apartment again," she paused, "Which is actually pretty gross if you think about it; that would be like, having childbirth except out the wrong end and with sharp ready-to-puncture edges."

"You've got problems princess, plus it isn't destroyed- just ruff'd up a bit." She heard from the kitchen.

"Ruff'd up a bit equals muddy floors, clogged drains, and maybe a little water damage here and there. We have a freaking _hole in the wall_. While I'm on it, is your hair thinning cause there are like, a _billion_ nasty long red pube hairs all in the bathtub."

He snorted, "Ya want to talk about hair, look at your own- It's enough to give even Strife a run for his money."

"Shut _up, _my bed head is pretty much the sexiest thing you have ever _seen_; I can tell- I can feel you quivering from lust all the way over here."

"There ain't anything sexy about you, princess," he retorted back, and walked over to her with a steaming moogle mug, in one hand and a beer in the other and sat down. She took the drink with twitching fingers, he always put a sickening amount of sugar in it, and it was impossibly good.

"Prick," she said, "You only say that cause your taste sucks. There are like, fifty billion people who think I'm some kind of _goddess_ of beauty and awesomeness." She slurped her chocolate; burning her tongue which then flopped out- she fanned it with her hand impulsively.

Reno watched her, and laughed smugly, "Oh, yeah- goddess material." Mr. Feminine-Ponytail.

"Pfft, I have seen all you're so called goddesses, Turkey. They have fake blown up lips, and even faker blowner upper boobs, and they smell like lottery tickets and fungus." She jutted her lips out as far as they could reach, and attempted to flutter her eye lashes, "K, now look. I reach up to your incredibly high standards now, huh fire crotch?"

He smirked and ignored her question, and stole her newspaper which she was _so_ not done with, thanks for asking.

She had joined the Turks roughly a year ago, Godo started spitting out daunting threats of responsibility and leadership and she got out of it the same way she did last time; by spontaneously committing herself to a team of well known assassins. Avalanche, Turks, there was a definite pattern. Reeve- all wide eyed and official, had practically squealed when she asked… er demanded that she be involved; it's good to know the boss-man, and thus Yuffie became a Turk; damn good one too.

She adapted pretty well considering- Elena was about to combust being the only girl on the team, so she adored Yuffie; Rude became like a big, stoney, intimidating brother, and Reno, well her and Reno were weird. When Rude and Elena tied the big-Turkish-knot they moved into their own apartment together (furnished by Reeve and his big wad of sweaty gil, he takes care of his men), Yuffie and Reno each had their own separate homes, that is until Reno was ambushed in his bachelors pad by a couple of _very_ pissed off trigger happy men one day (he ended up kicking their ass regardless, but they had demolished his beloved TV; which hurt him worse than any bullet would). After that they made a collective decision that it would be best if they paired up to watch each other's backs- which needed watching, everyone and their mother hated the Turks- and what's scarier than one Turk? Why two, of course. So she moved in with him.

It wasn't ever awkward between them, they argued and bickered and played pranks on each other, and it really wasn't that huge a change for either of them. But rule one in living with Reno she learned, you will have sex with him eventually, you just will, there is no question to it. And even _that_ wasn't awkward, they would just look at each other in that weird little way, and it was understood. They were an off-on boyfriend girlfriend thingie, actually they didn't really know what they were or really wasted any time to think about it. They were… them, and it just worked.

"So what are you big plans for the day, robbing children?" he asked.

"No. I'm going to go hang out with Elena around noon and stuff," she organized her schedule verbally, "We will probably talk about how bad you and Rude are in bed, or make fun of the new girl on the third floors highlights. What about you?" she leaned against him, trying to peek at what he was pretending to read.

"I have no idea; figure it out when I'm plastered." he said, like that was the simplest thing in the world. She cringed.

"Fair enough," she said.

Silence.

"You have laundry duty today, and this hot chocolate is orgasmic, by the way."

"Fuck no, I did it last time!" he shrugged her off his shoulder, squinting his face in annoyance.

"Are you kidding, I've done it the past three times, and I did the dishes- which is like the ultimate punishment, cause my hands get all pruney and gross." She told him matter of fact, after taking another gulp of her drink.

"Shit," he glared at her.

She snuggled back next to him, wiggling perversely against him and his shirtlessness until she is 100 comfortable; crinkling his paper, or her paper that he was borrowing forever.

"Yeah, shit" she repeated in her hot chocolate, spilling some all over her chin; she rubbed it off on his bare arm leaving a sopping brown gross looking streak, she wrote her name in it, smiling at her masterpiece. Surprisingly he didn't shrink back in disgust, though he was no doubt thinking about it- just sighed loudly and dramatically.

"You're such a fucking pain in the ass." She grinned like a three year old.

* * *

"… It's green."

Yuffie and Elena sat on oppose ends on a little booth of some health nut, tree hugger café thing. Elena had this fascination with all these 'all-natural' foods; preservatives kill and shit like that- it worked for her though, she was borderline gorgeous.

"Yes, Yuffie I see that." Elena humored the girl by responding.

"Lena, it's bread- last time I check on this planet, bread was whitish or maybe kind of brown… _not green_." Yuffie said, poking the vile object with her knife-"I think someone sneezed in it."

Elena rolled her eyes, "It tastes like bread."

"… but it's- it's green…"

"God Yuffie, just suck it up and eat it, you ate that piece of cake that had been in your fridge for like _a month_, and it had green parts growing on it. This won't kill you."

Yuffie responded by contorting her face to a look that she wasn't, as a human, supposed to be able to make, and continued to stare at her sandwich waiting for it to spring legs and attack her face off or something, "So what's up Lena, you only treat me to alien food when something big happened." She paused, "Rude is gay isn't he, that's what's wrong. You probably walked in on him in the bathroom with boy on boy dirty magazine- that_ would _explain the baldness, and the piercings and why he is always cleaning his electro stick and-"

"_Yuffie,_" she looked slightly ill, "God, You have been hanging around Reno too long. I have a secret for you; but you don't get to hear it if you keep questioning my husband's sexual preference, _especially_ in front of me."

It was a hard bargain, but Yuffie found this was a good opportunity to cleanse her mind of Rude having sex period, grossness. Plus the very fact that there was something _Elena_ knew that she didn't was enough to make her squirm in her seat.

She nodded her head in agreement- Elena seemed to find that that was enough.

"Alright, here it goes…" Elena said more to herself then anything, "I'm- well, Yuffie I'm pregnant."

Yuffie responded with ear pitching screeches followed by a serious of unidentifiable words in Wutainese.

"_No way! _This is the most awesome thing ever, I want to be there for_ everything; _the morning sickness, the late night cravings for pickles and ice cream- when you actually squirt the sucker out I want to be the one who catches it, okay?! Gaawwwdd I can't believe this, this is sooo cool." Elena just laughed, in that pretty mature laugh of hers, and smiled so wide it practically covered her whole face.

"Does Rude know?" Yuffie asked bouncing up and down in her seat, painfully oblivious to the glances she gained from all the washed out hippies in there; shunning her for being louder than the guitar riffs the restaurant was playing.

Elena shook her head, "That last mission was really rough on all of us, I figured I would save it for when he isn't so boogled down with work, y'know?"

"Yeah, good point. Man I'm so excited, you should so name it Copernicus, Copernicus Yuffie- which is the most bad ass name _ever_." Elena rolled her eyes.

"That is a stupid name; hey, look you can't tell anyone, okay? If Reno finds out he will tell Rude and well… yah that's my job," she said grinning and glowing. Yuffie wondered if maybe the weird green food was responsible for the glowing part, it was possible.

"Why the hell would I tell Reno, he is a _moron_. I won't tell anyone, pinky swear." She said, and held out her stubby no-nailed pinky. Elena intertwined her own (much nicer looking) with Yuffie's and giggled.

"Gawd, how fucking cool. I get to be Aunt Yuffie right? You know that cool aunt with a bunch of cats who teaches you all the bad words at an early age."

"But of course."

* * *

Reeve looked over the file again, for the third time; trying to think of the best course of action. The Turks would be involved that was a given, but they weren't going to be happy with this one. Not that it really mattered in the long run; they would bitch and moan (well Yuffie did) but they would get it done if he asked- they followed orders and did their job. It didn't make him feel any better about it though, because when it came down to it- he loved them; they were his family, one big dysfunctional fucked-up family with bombs and guns, and he hated dragging them into torturous situations like this one. But it can't be helped; things can't change without a little elbow grease, or blood in this case.

Plus it _was_ their job.

He knew each of them like the back of his hand, their personalities, their pros and their cons.

Elena had the best aim and did better snipering concealed from a far then in hand to hand combat. She was also their undercover girl; exceptionally good at information gathering- you couldn't keep anything from her if she wanted to know.

Rude was their muscle; an expert with weapons and bombs and just about anything that can make something go boom. He was calm and collect, kind of the solid ground for the rest of the Turks, keeping them in line and in place. He was often used for interrogations, probably because he was intimidating as hell.

Yuffie was by far the most agile and stealthy of the group, hell she was a ninja. She could break into any building you wanted and steal just about anything you asked her to, without breaking a sweat. She had no problems killing either, quick and direct.

Reno, he was the most observant. He had the most street smarts and just picked up on little things that no one else saw. He was the one you called on for the dirtiest of jobs. He was also the best close combat fighter- not quite as quick as Yuffie but pretty close and surprisingly strong for being so scrawny.

Reeve knew where the boundaries were for each of them mentally, and exactly how much he could ask from all of them- after all being a Turk was a traumatic job, encountering a hell of a lot of horrors; and everyone had their breaking point. This mission would be pushing those limits for everyone, he knew that and hated himself for that but it just _had_ to be done. He had no choice.

He picked up the phone, and called Rude and Elena's house first. He didn't bother with their PHS; it wasn't important he talk with them now- just so long as they were here tomorrow.

"Hi this is Elena, and Rude." He heard Elena's voice, "We aren't here right now, so leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can."

_Beep_

"Hey, it's Reeve. I need you two here first thing tomorrow, got another job for ya. This one is rough, so be bright and early."

Yuffie and Reno next… they would be a little harder- he knew good and well that they hardly ever picked up any of their phones.

"Hey, This is Reno," Reno's voice, "and Yuffie, I guess. Look uh, we ain't here-"

"Reno, you bastard! You touch my underwear with icy-hot _again_ and I beat you to a bloody plup!" Yuffie bellowed in the background.

"Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to make our stupid answering machine thing." Reno, "damn woman, just leave a message and shit."

_Beep_

"It's Reeve. Be here tomorrow morning, early. I have another mission. Don't be late Reno, I'm serious this time. Oh, and you two really need to change your message, I mean you cussed like ten times in it- and it didn't motivate me to actually leave a message." He smiled and hung up.

This was going to be a disaster.

* * *

After debating with himself, Reno decided all he really wanted to do on his day off was to go to sleep. He was sore and tired and in a bad mood. So he settled himself on the coach after Yuffie left and counted beer bottles till he finally dozed off with the confident knowledge that that damned clock that was responsible for waking him up earlier had gone to an early grave, and was now disturbing the rest of poor souls in hell.

He was successful for a few hours; dreaming flagrant dreams of half naked girls in helicopters with flamethrowers and alcohol- which was a terrible dream to wake up in the middle of, at least for him it was- and the phone rang, and rang, and rang. He found himself awake, in a not-so helicopter, with not-so half naked chicks not-so drunk- just him and another fucking machine waking him up. He promptly choose not to answer it, in a passive aggressive attempt to piss it off, and almost desperately tried to get back to sleep, but the door flung open and in came Yuffie skipping and holding a to-go box.

"Fuck," he mumbled under his breath, "fuck, fuck, fuck." Because his foolish hope for slumber flew out the door the moment she walked in it.

"Turkey, get your ass up and look at this- it will blow your mind, trust me it blew mine to little tiny pieces." Yuffie called from the kitchen.

"What mind," he said to himself, it was a last minute tradition of his for when he actually did what she said- he insulted her.

He found her, staring quite intently at the small white, now open Styrofoam box.

"What the fuck is that!" he cried after seeing what had induced her staring.

"My sandwich," she said softly like it was a secret.

"Its'… green." He stated observantly.

She laughed then, loud obnoxious belly laugh- "That's so totally what I said." And, "Elena thought it was normal, I brought it home cause I was scared the moment I left it alone it would attack someone, and it would blow colossal chunks if I saved the world just to accidentally destroy it again with my sandwich."

She leaned back, grabbing a pen on the counter drew a big, gloopy smiley face on the sandwich- then turned back to him, and grinned as big as her skull would let her before busting out in another fit of snorting giggles.

He looked at her and then the sandwich and then her again and kissed her; hard and on the mouth- he blamed it on one of three things; to wipe that stupid smile off her face, he didn't finish his potentially awesome dream; he was in shock from the baggage she brought home so he didn't really know what he was doing. He choose to ignore the possibility that it was because she was catastrophically pretty when she laughed so hard she hiccupped- not that he needed justification to kiss her anyway, Reno kisses when Reno pleases.

When they break apart she frowned, "If you weren't a good kisser I would have bit your tongue off for that, ninjas don't like to be caught off guard."

"I thought ninjas weren't ever supposed to be caught off guard to begin with." He asked, his hands moved dangerously slow down her back, his impossibly red hair tickled her face as he swapped spit with her throat.

"They aren't- when it comes to weapons and bad guys- but we aren't trained to deal with old geezer perverts." She says, with as straight a face as she can muster up. His eyes are glowing green like her sandwich, and she doesn't stand a chance.

"Oh, is that so." He whispers to her neck, she can feel his smirk like it was branding her, "well we are gonna have to work on that, wont we."

"Practice makes perfect, ginger." He laughed- dark and saturated with intension.

She let her little thief hands take advantage of that fact that he was still in his pajamas, which conveniently were solely boxers- but even those seem like to much, because he is Reno and he has the most gorgeous body in the entire world ever (with scars and freckles and tattoos and muscles) and it should so be against every law everywhere for him to even wear clothes- stealing his skin and his heat and breath. She grabbed him by the wrist, none to gently and dragged him to his room, and shut the door- like she was expecting someone to come in their apartment, like she even _gave a damn_ about privacy.

In about .345 seconds (which has to be a world record, she would look it up later) her top was on the floor, next to the decomposing remains of the alarm clock that stabbed at their feet during their distracted odyssey to the bed- but she didn't care, cause it is so hard to care about anything when his tongue is memorizing her molars, and his hands are _everywhere._

"Hey Reno…" she gasped and said, falling back on the bed that they finally found, pulling him down with her. He made a strange grunting noise in the back of his throat, she assumed that meant he was listening- his kisses going lower and lower.

"Have I told you your goggles are adorable." He stopped suddenly, and leaned forward to look at her; his ponytail sliding off his shoulders and pooled onto to her stomach – she shivered.

"You talk too much, yo." He said annoyed, and covered her mouth with his before she could argue.

* * *

She awoke the next morning- once again by banging (that has got to stop), loud, hard, hinge grinding banging at the door. She opened her eyes and surveyed the damage, she was currently one of the proud participants involved in a huge knot of limbs and sheets; Reno was comfortably collapsed on top of her, his legs latched on around hers like some sexy naked leech, anchoring her to the bed till he was ready to let her go. She had no clue how he managed to sleep over the brash abuse of their front door- but she sure as hell couldn't and someone was going to get a huge ninja foot up their ass.

"Reno-" she hissed, and poked his temple with sharp fingers, "Reno, get the fuck off me."

He winced, opening two very heavy eye lids in slow motion and looked at her, "… no." and then tighten his grip on her leg and waist.

"Damnit Turkey, someone is fixing to punch down our wall- let me _goooo_." she turned her head and bit into his shoulder. That had the desired effect; he moaned and rolled off her, cussing under his breath. She smirked and mentally basked in her victory- she had made Reno… _Reno_ get _off_ a naked woman. Her celebration was cut short though when she realized how cold the room was without her red headed Turk blanket and that someone _was still fucking at it_ at the door. She stood up, placing one foot on the bed, and yanked at the a sheet that was threaded around Reno, and after a long epic struggle (5 seconds) he gave up and let her have it- Yuffie 2, Reno squat.

Yuffie wrapped the sheet around her as a make shift toga-poncho thing as she slugged towards the door preparing her angry ninja face. She swung it open with a, "What the_ fuck_ do you want!" only to be greeted with a blushing Rude, she didn't know Rude even_ could_ blush.

He regained himself from the appending shock remarkably fast for someone who just saw Yuffie almost naked- she wasn't sure how to take that- and cleared his throat. "We have a meeting with Reeve in…" he looked down at his watch, "27 minutes. I figured you would like to know."

"Ohmygawdshitthanks." And the door slammed. Rude heard what appeared to be like, "Reno why the fuck didn't you _tell_ me we had a meeting, shit shit shit where are my clothes?" as he turned towards the stairs, shaking his head with a tiny tiny _tiiiny_ little smile.

* * *

"Yuffie, what the hell are you wearing?" Reeve asked honestly, as Yuffie and Reno walked into his office _late_, who would have thought.

Yuffie was caked in cloth, her pants were falling off her every time she even thought about moving, her shirt hanging down to her mid-thigh, her jacket looked like it was trying to swallow her.

"Someone didn't do the laundry like they were supposed to-"she glared at Reno, who was trying his best not to snicker behind her, "so now I have to wear his spare. They itch and smell weird and it would be wise for you _not_ to bring it up again." She stomped over to Elena, who gave her a small understanding smile.

"When was I supposed to do laundry, we were at it all day-"

"Reno! Shut the fuck up." She spat, her face painted red.

"Right… Now that we are all here," Reeve broke in awkwardly, "It would be nice to talk about what I called for." He glanced over at Reno, who put his hands up defensively. He paused, and flipped Rude a file, "The name Derek Duval, ring a bell to anyone?"

"Yeah, he's like the king pin of the prostitution rings in Midgar- got connections up the ass." Reno piped in, taking the file from Rude. Yuffie and Elena both looked over his shoulder at it. The file contained a picture of the guy, he was unexpectedly good looking- clean cut and polished, or at least he did from the picture; black hair tied back in a tight bun, he face flawless with a hint of a smirk. He did not look like someone who was pimping an entire city. "Met more times than I care for" he added.

"Bingo. That's the guy," Reeve said, "Apparently he has become increasingly interested in human trafficking, selling kidnapped women to the highest bidder- it's sick but there is so much money involved in it that its practically untouchable even for us. He has gotten good at it to, quickly rising to the top. We are going to use his knew found hobby for our purposes." He took a chug of his water; long briefings like these did horrors for your throat. "I have been itching to weed out sex trafficking for a while now, problem is the people in charge of this are incredibly well protected, we haven't the foggiest idea who they are. Our boy here is now a force to be reckoned with in the industry though, which means he is going to be meeting with the big guys and dishing up all he can on his completion. Basically giving us a list of who all is involved."

"Undercover then, huh." Elena whispered, still staring at the picture.

"Mhm. Turns out he has a history of getting attached to certain hookers, lets them live with him if he really likes them. All we have to do is get one of you in that house. Once your there you gather information on who he is talking to, what he's doing, who he is doing it with, anything. It isn't going to be an easy one though; this is a long term mission and he- he is a little rough with his women. Three of the past women who he invited to live with him have disappeared, it's not going to be easy, and there is a really good chance that someone is going to get really hurt." He looked straight at Elena.

Elena's face paled considerably, sweating and trying to keep calm- Yuffie noticed this, watching her out of the corner of her eye. Reeve wanted Elena to do it, he made that obvious… but Elena was pregnant, no fucking way was she going to live with the asshole- She had little Copernicus Yuffie to worry about.

"So Elena I'll need yo-"

"I'll do it." Yuffie interrupted him before he could finish that stupid train of thought; no way in hell was Elena going. Everyone in the room was taken back, even Rude allowed a sharp intake of breath. She felt Reno staring holes in the back of her head, she raised her chin to show she was serious, and confident. "I'll go" and gave Elena a your-paying-for-every-lunch-I'll-ever-have-again-for-this-and-it-better-be-a-normal-fucking-color-too look.

"Yuffie… are you sure?" Reeve asked, unsure himself of what caused the random determination, it was… unyuffish.

"Well lets think about this, Rude would look practically horrendous in hooker dress, Reno would make a pretty girl- and he knows all the dumb whore pick up lines, but he kind of has a penis, however small, and that kind of might throw the mission over board, Elena can't go cause she is the only one here that actually _does_ paper work – I draw cool pictures on it, Reno burns it, and Rude just kind of drools on it- and if this is a couple month thing, you would go through effectively-done-paperwork withdrawal and get gross rashes and stuff. So that leaves me, myself, and I. I am sneaky, so I can scamper around and watch this Derek dude/look through his desks/do sneaky stuff, and I can take a punch. I am your only choice."

"Well, If your sure abo-"

"We will be right back." Reno interrupted Reeve this time (he gets interrupted a lot), his voice cold- not brr it's freezing in here kind of cold, but cold like metal against warm skin. He grabbed Yuffie by the elbow and pulled her out of Reeve's office and into the hallway, growling a "We need to talk" under his breath.

"No we don't," she barked after he had closed the door.

"Yes, we _do_." He pinned her against the wall, "what the hell are you doing?" his face was brittle, his eyed furious.

"My job." She replied hotly.

"As in, you have _no fucking clue_ what you are doing. This is not your every day sleaze ball Yuffie, when Reeve said rough he wasn't talking about a slap across the face because you talked back, god no. He is talking about rape, and beating you within an inch of your life and then giving his friends a turn. This guy gets off by breaking people princess, he is master at it." It felt like he was spitting venom on her face, it was dripping off every word he said.

"And you want Elena involved with that?! It's a sucky situation, duh. _I know that_, but someone has to do it, Reno. It's _my_ decision." Well she can be angry too, if that's how he wants to play.

"I don't want anyone in there! Yuffie, you're not immune to pain as much as you like to think you are- he has destroyed plenty of girls that thought they were _just _as indestructible as you."

"Except they weren't trained fucking ninjas! Not to mention a Turk; those are like the two_ scariest_ things in the world, and I'm a hybrid combination of both. I think I can handle anything _one man_ can throw at me."

"God, stop being so fucking stupid and listen to me, _it's doesn't matter_. I've dealt with this guy before, babe. You could be Shiva herself and he would still pick you apart. You are not invincible." He was overcome with frustration- dipping his head and resting it on her forehead, "I swear you're not Yuffie."

She stroked his hair, her own anger evaporating as she wrapped a crimson streak around her finger, around and around, "Look, I will be careful Reno, I really will- all eyes and ears and shit. Okay? I realize this guy is big time, but you have to realize that I'm not just any normal girl- I have been trained how to handle this situations like this. I'm a lot more prepared than anything he has dealt with, so stop being a mangina about it. I'm a Turk blah blah I get the mission done; so have a little faith in me, alright Turkey?"

He took a deep breath, before smirking, "Did you really just call me a mangina?"

"No… yes, shut up. Let's just go end this stupid meeting so I can go home and get some fucking sleep for once," she said yawning on cue, dragging him through the door. "Yeah, sorry about that; girl talk- you know, just can't wait." She told Reeve who greeted them with a strange expression of a bunch of different emotions put into a blender without a top on.

"Right… so you're still doing it then?" she nodded.

"Elena you and Reno will go tomorrow to the Gentleman's Club, try and figure out his schedule- sees what kind of girl he likes while you're at it, personality wise and such. You have the rest of the day off cause all of you give me a headache from hell." Reeve concluded, rubbing his temples as if to prove a point.

Elena walked over to Yuffie when they were leaving the building, "Yuffie, um- thank you for… you know." Yuffie grinned widely.

"I want like twenty Christmas presents this year, expensive, impractical, shiny Christmas presents."

"You got yourself a deal."


	2. Chapter 2

Yuffie was true to her word, passing out just as soon as she walked in their apartment, stumbling her way to his room (she had her own room, why was she going to his)- snoring slightly in the sweaty tangled mess of his bed that they didn't have time to clean. Reno followed her in, a frown carved on his face since he heard about the mission- human trafficking was a _dirty_ business, and he hated dealing with it, those bastards were ruthless and probably the most dangerous out of all the people they dealt with; willing to do anything to protect their position and more importantly, their money. You just didn't fuck around with them without a suicide note, and Yuffie, that stupid twit had just willingly cart wheeled herself in the _middle of it all_, and didn't even have enough sense to lose sleep over it.

And that really, _really_ bothered him- he would be losing enough sleep for both of them.

Reno realized that it was either Yuffie or Elena, it had to be one of them- and as bad as it sounded he would have given anything for Elena to get stuck with it. It wasn't that he was less fond of her, or even that he thought she was bettered situated for the mission- Elena was like his goody-goody, follow the rules little sister and he loved her, it was for more selfish reasons then that. Elena had Rude to worry about her, so Reno really wouldn't have to… Yuffie, however, he couldn't help but break out into sweat for every reckless decision she made. The thought of her living with _Derek Duval_ and being subjected to the kind of shit he will no doubt pull twisted his stomach and heart and everything in between into a giant unhealthy knot that launched itself in his throat.

He knew there was something she wasn't telling him too, which made it worse, and he knew it had something to do with Elena- he saw the brief look of panic that washed across Yuffie's face when Reeve turned his attention to Elena… right before she volunteered, right there in the middle of his sentence. He had noticed the glance they shared, telling secrets, big dangerous secrets. He would find out what was going on tomorrow, when he was with Elena- if Yuffie had any intension of telling him at all she would have already done so.

He walked over to his bedroom and studied her. She hadn't bothered to get undressed, or even to take off her shoes- she just sprawled out on top of the sheets and blankets and conked out. "What the hell are you thinking?" he whispered to her, hoping maybe she would sleep talk and spill out all of those stupid little thoughts that were bouncing inside her mind.

He sat down on the foot of the bed, untied her shoelaces and took off both ridiculously bright sneakers as discreetly as he could (Reeve and her had butted heads about the shoes every day, it was like a ritual now like brushing your teeth and putting the toilet seat down, Reeve would glare at her shoes and she would jump to their defense _I can't be ninjaish if I'm wearing Turkey shoes_) - picked up a blanket on the floor and laid it across her; she was always fucking cold when she woke up. It was an endearing gesture, nauseatingly so, and he was beyond thankful that she was practically comatose at the moment- he would never hear the end of it.

She had had a point before; she was just as good a fighter as he was and excelled in the art of taking care of herself. He had seen her kill many many times before, slicing men left and right with guts flying and blood spewing and she handled it with the ease only experience and training could ensure; she had seen things that were just about as fucked up as it comes- and still he viewed her as doe-eyed and innocent. She had told him once that she was the most underestimated person in the world- that's why she was so good at what she did; no one_ ever_ considered her a threat with her big feet and bright colors until they had a throwing star lodged in their throat. He knew that better than anyone, but he couldn't shake that feeling gnawing at the bottom of his gut- she _wasn't _ready to for this.

He sighed, glancing at her one last time before getting up and actually _doing_ the laundry for once.

* * *

It took her a few blinking moments to wake up a few hours later and place where exactly she was, finally recognizing Reno's room by the hole in the wall and the pale arm around her waist. She yawned contently, arching upward to stretch her back turning her head to look at Reno's face to see any signs of disturbance, trying to cause as few tremors on the bed as possible to allow him to continue to sleep- her act of kindness for the day. It however went in vain as two green eyes abruptly sprung open; scaring the shit out of her, being a Turk taught him to be an incredibly light sleeper when he wanted to be.

"Uh, whoops?" she offered, laughing weakly before swinging her legs over to the side of the bed and sat up; only to be dragged back down again by a very company hungry Reno, hugging her into him so tightly she was scared she was going to collapse his ribs or something, and the day already sucked enough without internally wounding your cuddle buddy.

"Nah uh princess, I let you off easy this morning. Don't think I forgot about that, and there is no one at the door to save you this time." She put up no argument, turning around to nuzzle her face into the crook of his neck a smirk painted on her face. She fingered a loose lock of his hair absentmindedly, warm crimson against calloused white- she gagged mentally on how cheesy and poetic that was and all the different faces Reno would make if she told him, served him right for having pretty hair.

"The only reason I'm coming back willingly is because you're warm," she said to his skin, "don't assume I like you or anything," and smiled.

"Of course not," his hands traced small pictures on her back; stick figures with stick houses and stick grenades- she found it harder to stay awake.

"Hey Reno?"

"Hm."

"You weren't actually asleep were you?"

"No." His clothes were still on; he doesn't sleep with them on unless he absolutely has to- more accurately he doesn't wear them _period_ unless he absolutely has to.

"Oh, what were you doing then?"

He snorted "Solving world hunger." Sarcastic bastard. That was _so _the last time she was going to be even _mildly _interested in anything he did.

Silence.

"Hey Reno?"

"Yeah," She felt the vibrations of his voice against her cheek- it tickled.

"What time is it?"

"Around sixish, or it was when I looked last." He said with a yawn.

"And when was that?"

"Around sixish." Stupid asshole.

Silence.

"Hey Reno?"

"God, what?!" he asked, amusingly annoyed, and annoyingly amused.

"Do I kick in my sleep?" She was quieter this time - exploding of self consciousness.

He noticed her change in tone, in response to it he exchanged his normal answer of 'like a PMSing chocobo' to just a simple, "yes."

He felt her blush on his neck, "Hard?"

"I've got bruises babe, you don't even have to be awake to wanna kick my ass." His Renoish attempt to lighten the mood; it failed miserably for the record, because nothing could prepare him for her reply.

"Oh… You think that Derek guy will mind, I mean if I have to live with him then it's probably not in my favor if I'm kicking the shit out of him every time he goes to sleep. What if he notices how hard I actually kick, normal girls couldn't possibly have as strong legs as I do- so my kicks are probably fifty billion times worse. What if he notices that, it could blow my cover! How am I supposed to stop being Yuffie Kisaragi super kick ass ninja-turk in my sleep? What if I sleep tal-" She was panicky sounding, like a four year old with monsters under her bed- she just talked and talked in breathy intervals, rambling irrational thoughts that waterfall out of her mouth. He interrupted her before she could psyche herself out anymore; he was no stranger to poisons of self-doubt

"Yuffie, calm down." She had clawed herself even closer to him, grabbing hold to the wrinkly folds of his shirt. "The bastard is like the whore king, he has slept with god knows how many women babe, I'm pretty sure a little kicking isn't gonna phase him much. Plus the fucker needs a foot up his ass" He took a breath trying to catch up with all the issues she addressed, "I won't lie, your legs aren't normal- they are phenomenal, so that will just _work_ to your advantage." He pried her away from him slightly to look at her face- gray eyes and uncertainly. "You will do fine princess."

She wasn't aware that she was holding her breath until she felt herself let it go in an unattractive huff,_ I will do fine I will do fine I will do fine_.

She was pretty sure she was bipolar or some other over diagnosed mental disorder, because not four hours ago she was the one convincing _him _that she could do it- and she just wasted that cool pep talk speech she had given him by freaking out about something stupid like this. It is a pretty retarded thing to contradict yourself in front of the very person you want to be confident in you. But the smallest details always freaked her out.

She sat up again, successfully this time, and made it a point to bounce out of bed- counteracting what just happened and praying the he might have had something to drink when she was asleep so all he will remember tomorrow is the very refined details of the toilet bowl, and maybe everything he has had to eat in the last 24 hours. Who was she kidding, she had only seen him vomit up all his lovely little entrails once- after Reeve's New Year's Party with Avalanche; and that was probably on behave of Barret's shit-facedness combined with his exhibitionist streak. Yuffie blew chunks many times as well that night, everyone did.

She turned around and found him staring at her, she expected him to be more than a little lost considering she jumped from breathy and nervous, to bubbly and giddy in a matter of a few seconds- but upon closer exception, it didn't look like he was confused at all. The only evidence of bewilderment was an eyebrow perched higher than normal; the rest of his face was saturated in a subliminal understanding and a hint of concern. It was a little unnerving but she guessed he knew her pretty well, they lived_ and _worked together- it was a rare occurrence when they weren't attached by the hip.

She striked a typical Yuffie pose, arms launched in to the air punching the wicked unseen enemy Carbon Dioxide, anything to get him to stop looking so serious. She however, conveniently forgot she was still wearing his clothes (about twenty billion sizes to big) and her pants abandoned her in the middle of her battle with the invisible, he smiled wolfly to neon yellow smiley face underwear and the bright red Yuffie inside them.

"You sneaky bastard, you knew that would happen!" she accused, hastily pulling the pants back up bundling them in the front.

He sat up his shirt more messed up then usual thanks to her little outburst, "I hate to squash your confidence in me, but I have nothing to do with gravity, babe. Though I will have to thank it for this one."

" Asshole, you probably blackmailed it do it. It's probably some kind of secret Turk trick you haven't taught me yet, like doing that thing with people fingers that makes them shit themselves. When am I gonna learn that?"

"Never, I may be a coldblooded heartless killer- but I'll be damned if I let you walk out into the world with that kind of information on you, I have _some_ morals." He slowly stood up on two shaky feet, and searched around for his pack of cigarettes. She stuck her tongue out at him over her shoulder, as she walked out into the kitchen.

"Be sure to emphasize the _heartless_ part," she yelled at him, opening the fridge. "How is it possible that we don't have _any_ food."

His arms wrapped around her from behind, he rested his head on top of hers to look at the contents of their fridge, an unlit cigarette draping from his lips, "Hey we got beer."

She snorted, still hypnotized by the empty shelves, "Gawd forbid we not have any beer."

"Don't knock it, it makes being hungry a hell of a lot easier." He said, reaching over her to one of the said objects. She ducked below him, throwing him off balance and headed for the phone, "What are you doing?"

"I'm ordering pizza, and you're paying." She said, dialing the memorized number; rule two when living with Reno- respect the delivery.

"Why the hell am I paying?" he asked slurping down half of his beer.

"Because Turkey, you went to the grocery store and your retarded alcoholic driven brain choose to ignore the fact you need food to live and instead focused on booze, cigarettes, and no doubt some porn or something." She put up her middle finger as to signify the end of her monologue and treaded off to the other side of the room and placed her order to the distracted teenager on the line.

"I'm not paying, yo. You didn't even ask if I _even_ wanted pizza." He said to her crossly when she came back.

"Duh, you always want pizza- I would be wasting air the trees worked very hard to make if I asked you something stupid like that." He didn't look convinced, "Fine, I'll make a deal with you, whiney fucker. We will play Go-fish over it, if I win you pay, and vice versa, and if you even think about complaining, I will shoved ninja stars so far up your ass your ears will bleed. Comprende?"

He ignored her threat quite blankly, "Why Go-fish? Can't we play poker?"

"No, poker is for old men, plus I cheat way better at Go-Fish." She grinned.

He thought for a moment, "One condition princess, we up the ante" he smirked wildly, "strip Go-Fish."

"Reno how the hell is that even possible? Only you would try and deflower one of the most innocent games on the planet, it's like… strip hopscotch, or naked tic tac toe." He's gaze didn't waver, "How do we do it?" she finally replied with a sigh.

"When someone gets a pair, the other person has to take off their clothes- the loser has to not only pay for the pizza, but they have to get up and pay for it with the amount of clothes they lost in." he said smoothly, lighting his cigarette.

An aggressive grin was her response.

* * *

The delivery boy walked up to the room, slowly and carefully- this was the infamous Turk's room; the stories about this apartment that circulated around Caledonia's Pizza were enough to make anyone wet themselves. They had debated on who had to do the terrible deed this time, fate and a short straw had chosen him and not even a string of obscenities had got him off the hook.

He held his breath as he knocked on the door, mentally getting in a quick prayer before it opened.

There, much to his quezy horror, was a very,_ very_ naked Reno of the Turks swinging the door wide open like he was completely unaware that he was unclothed with a growl on his face.

He flung some money at the boy, not caring if he got it on not- viscously snapped the pizza out of his hands and slammed the door walking back to the small brunette dying of hysterical laughter and gasping for breath.

The delivery boy just stood there for a few seconds, trying to compose himself with a series of squeaks before quickly diving for the money and sprinting down the stairs. Man did he have a story for the guys.

* * *

"Did you see the look on his face? You probably just signed him up for ten years with a shrink." Yuffie managed to spit out in between her fits of laughter- throwing his boxers back to him.

"Whatever, a sexy spectacle like myself- I bet I turned him queer." He easily caught the clothing, slumping towards her pizza in hand.

She snorted, "Oh no doubt, you definitely made me question my sexual preference." He shot her a look of annoyance before getting dressed one handedly- she eased it for him by getting up and taking the pizza greedily, and planting a firm kiss on his forehead; giggling at his inability to balance on one foot, put on clothes, and scold her all that the same time.

"Oh, so you wouldn't mind if I brought some of my lady friends over," he found his smirk, she made a distinct gagging noise before taking a bite of her slice- he was amazed at how quickly she had obtained the piece of pizza sitting on the couch; reminding himself to stop underestimating how rapidly her thief fingers can work.

"Ew, Grossness. Reno you are so nasty." He laughed, plopping down next to her- he could have sworn she almost growled like a dog when he reached for the pizza.

"Hey babe, you set yourself up for that one" She punched his arm with a sadistic smirk on her face, and stretched out resting her head in his lap and stuck her tongue out before shoving half her slice in her mouth. He rolled his eyes, "charming."

"I know, it's the royalty in me," she said with her mouth full- he realized _then_ that he could never live without her.

When all the pizza was gone, she was still laying on him- his fingers playing with her short hair.

"So when are you going tomorrow?" she asked hesitantly, she really didn't want to bring up this subject in fear that he would go off again, but it was going to happen eventually.

"Before you wake up." he said, looking down at her.

"I doubt it; you can't get out of a bed without waking up everyone on our floor." He frowned, and she giggled "Well wake me up before you go, ok?" she added.

"Why?"

"Just cause," she replied, pausing, "I have to distract you some before you go and subject yourself to huge stripper boobs." She smiled cheekily, he smirked in response- his face shortly after however winced in concentration, it did not go unnoticed. "What's wrong Turkey?"

He didn't answer for a moment, then finally, "Yuffie what aren't you telling me about this mission?" She sat up off him, looking at him wryly, "It's important that there are no secrets going into a job this big."

She analyzed him for a moment, his face had hardened- why was he so jumpy? She considered telling him, but she promised Elena; it wasn't her place.

"You saw the file, you know as much about it as I do." She said smartly.

"Except why you volunteered for it," his voice was more cross now, she bit the inside of her cheek.

"Who else would?"

"It was meant for Elena, you knew that."

"_Duh_. But Elena has a life, Reno. She can't afford to go missing for a couple of months. She is married now and has got all that domestic bullshit on her plate." She bit back, raising her voice slightly. She really didn't want to fight about this.

"She is a Turk, it's her _job_" he snarled.

"Well it's mine now! So drop it." No one spoke for a while, letting the anger simmer, "I'm going to take a shower." She stated abruptly, desperate to get away from the tension.

She stood up to go, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back on him, "Stop babe, look I know I'm being a prink-"

"Damn right"

"- but I got a bad feeling about this. And I've learned to always trust your gut feelin-"

"You can shove your gut feeling up you –"

"Shut up! God damnit, Yuffie will you shut up for just one fucking second! You know how hard it is to sit here and tell you I have never been more nervous about_ anything_ then I am about you going on this mission, it's even harder with you fucking interrupting me after every fucking syllable. Do you know how incredibly challenging it is to get you to stop fucking yakking your brains out long enough for me to tell you that the thought of Derek or anyone _even touching you_ is enough to make me lose my mind- calm, cool, carefree Reno sweating, biting his nails, wringing his hands like some kind of pussy ass school girl- all because of _you_!" He kissed her before she could say anything, fierce and angry; tearing her mouth apart – lips, tongue, and teeth all attacking her like they never would again. She was caught completely by surprise; still trying to compute what he said, and why he said it, and what it meant when his mouth cascaded on hers- stopping all mental thought and demanding that her brain be put on hold; because nothing was more important at that moment then him and her and rising urge to devour each other. He kissed her like he was scared, he kissed her like he was frustrated, he kissed her like he was lost.

He broke it off, twirling her to his chest and resting his head on top of hers, "The thought of something happening to you Yuffs, it kills me like nothing ever could, and you won't even let me talk long enough to tell you."

Yuffie crumpled against him shaking, not entirely sure why. For once she didn't reply- no smart ass comments, no snorts or smirks, no 'Turkey'; just her trying to catch her breath and him holding her as tightly as he could. Eventually he felt her breathing steady against him, and came to the conclusion the she was _once again_ asleep- she was always sleeping, he still however continued to stroke her hair; it calmed him as much as it did her, plus she might wake up randomly.

"God, I need a smoke." He sighed, before shifting so they were both horizontal on the cough, curling closer to her before closing his own eyes.


End file.
